We celebrate the life that Jesus planned for us. The battle against the persistent negative narrative that we are not good enough has zero influence as we are covered by the blood. The voice in the head of many wants the lost to think that they have “nothing” to bring to Jesus! But GOD Almighty, He just wants our hearts, not our talent! Our Creator loves us just as He fashioned us.  Our Father has a unique plan for each person that He created in His own image. Be encouraged by Charlotte!

As a young woman, she was never quite certain of her relationship with Jesus. She was raised as a minister’s kid, but she was not sure if she was indeed worth saving. A traveling evangelist asked a haunting question. “Are you at peace with God?” This question recycled through her mind. Charlotte later told the evangelist that she could not shake his question. She confessed that doubt disturbed her peace. She stated, “I have nothing to offer God.” Wisdom ministered through the evangelist. He replied, “You need to bring nothing but yourself, God just wants you.” Instantly relieved, Charlotte gladly accepted Christ.

Twelve years later, in 1835, crippled by illness and constant fatigue, Charlotte felt saddened by her inability to help a local church’s cause. Remembering her conversion, she wrote a poem to encourage others who might feel that they too had nothing to give. . . Charlotte Elliott penned: “Just As I Am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, Oh, Lamb of God, I come…” After this poem was made public, she was inundated with requests for it. She later learned that some copies were being sold to raise money for the very cause she felt helpless to assist!

On November 1, 1931, a 31-year-old man riding in the sidecar of his brother’s motorcycle in England finally came to the end of his internal struggle against whether Christ was indeed the Son of God. He finally knew in his soul that indeed Jesus was just who He said He was! He realized that God calls us to Himself “Thou bidst me come to Thee, Oh Lamb of God, I come”. The man riding in the sidecar was C.S. Lewis. He was a new man, saved by grace, not his intellect!

Ninety-nine years after Charlotte Elliott penned that poem, and 3 years after CS Lewis’ accepted Jesus as Lord, a 16-year-old son of a dairy farmer went to a tent revival. Billy heard the message of salvation in Charlotte, NC. As the song, “Just As I Am,” was sung at the end, young Billy Graham went forward to accept Christ. 20 years later, Billy Graham was invited to speak at Cambridge University in England. He was nervous over the event, which nearly led him to cancel it. Billy was introduced to a kind man named C.S. Lewis who encouraged him to disregard the critics and to continue with the revival. Billy preached the Gospel to an overflow crowd of 2,000 each night. When he returned to England in 1989, he addressed a crowd of 80,000 at England’s Wimbley Stadium! As always, Billy closed the event with the same song that brought him to Christ, “Just As I Am.”

Our Father can take the angst and frustration like Charlotte Elliot’s, the intellectual skepticism of CS Lewis’, and the nervousness of Billy Graham, and reach the world through people just like us!

“Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”

After her humble burial, her family discovered thousands of letters in her home, written by people whose lives had been transformed by her words. That poem became a hymn and has been translated into hundreds of languages, published in more than 1600 hymnals, and has reached billions around the world, and continues to encourage people to simply come to Christ as they are.

Charlotte Elliott (1883-1974) was a pioneering American plant physiologist specializing in bacterial organisms that cause disease in crops. She penned  the Manual of Bacterial Plant Pathogens. God gifted her with a desire to serve as many as possible. More about CS Lewis Aside Fun

By His Blood